Loss of key US satellite data could send hurricane forecasting back 'decades'

Starlink is 65x closer to earth. If a geostationary satellite was 1 km away, Starlink would be ~15 meters.

Dramatically different scale.

Thanks for the extra context, that's helpful.

How big would the optics on a satellite in Starlink's orbit need to be to achieve similar clarity, then?

The communication relay sats are in a geosync orbit at 35,786 km constant.

The imaging satellites with the mirrors and telescopes are more dynamic and in eccentric LEO orbits at a similar height to the starlink sats.

see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-11_KENNEN (and the heading Resolution and ground sample distance indicating the close approach height being closer to earth's surface than typical starlink sat).

A little bit bigger, the starlink sats have a uniform height, the optical spy sats with the big mirrors have a similar mean orbital height but are in elliptic orbits that come in closer, then further away. The best photos are taken closer to the earth than a typical starlink sat is.

The above comment about geostationary orbits is confused .. the spy sats with mirrors relay their data out to geostationary relay sats and then back to earth ground stations.

If you're curious you can read more in the wikipedia link (and other references) I linked in a peer comment.

My dude I want what you are smoking. KH-11s are not geostationary, they're in extremely low polar orbits. They're as low or lower than Starlink satellites and are huge.